Licensed guns belonging to Siddique Rasul, owner of RSS Security Services, have undergone ballistic testing that have cleared them of any link to the fatal shooting outside the Rio Inn nightclub, according to his attorney Nigel Hughes.
Hughes yesterday confirmed that the weapons had been cleared and he also made it clear that there was never “any suggestion that he [Rasul] did the shooting.”
Police became interested in testing Rasul’s licensed firearms after information surfaced that a prime suspect in the September 26 fatal shooting of Ryan Sergeant had rented the weapon from him. Around 2.30am on that day, Sergeant was shot dead, while another man, Jeffrey Ferrell, was injured after an argument ended in gunfire in front of the nightclub. Sergeant, called ‘Harry,’ of Festival City, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown was shot once to his head and reportedly dumped outside of the Woodlands Hospital, where he was subsequently pronounced dead.
Ferrell, who also resides in North Ruimveldt, was shot to his neck and taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery.
A letter, penned by Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum in response to a correspondence from Hughes, had suggested that Rasul’s refusal to have the weapons tested was hindering the murder investigation. Hughes, in his letter, had asserted that his client was the victim of a biased investigation.
Blanhum had explained that in investigating the murder, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) ranks received credible information that one of the prime suspects, who is a very close associate of Rasul, “rented from him a 9mm licensed firearm that was issued to his registered security company.” The police said that it was further disclosed that the suspect habitually provided security to Rasul.
“It must be noted that gunpowder residue was found on the hands of this prime suspect and as a result, the detectives proceeded to further investigate this credible information… and contacted Mr. Rasul to have him hand over to them all the 9mm firearms that were issued to his security company for ballistic testing against the 9mm spent shell that was recovered at the crime scene,” the letter said.
It was noted that in addition to the 9mm spent shell, another calibre of spent shell was also retrieved. “Mr. Rasul was reluctant to produce his licensed firearms for ballistics testing and began to hurl wild and unsubstantiated accusations to the ranks that his business partner (name blotted out) wanted to use the police to seize his firearm,” the letter stated.
Approached yesterday following the opening ceremony of a judicial seminar, Blanhum declined to say whether ballistic tests produced negative results. Asked about the businessman’s four guns which police had claimed he was refusing to hand over, the Crime Chief said that they were brought in but he declined to disclose the results of ballistic tests. “I wouldn’t disclose that to you,” he said.
Blanhum, however, assured that in time those results will be made public. He told reporters that the matter is still under investigation and that he did not want to release any information to the press as yet.
Asked if the results of the test will be released at a later date given that it is a high profile investigation, Blanhum said, “Yes, I will make that disclosure but at this point in time I will not.”
The information reaching Stabroek News is that the businessman surrendered all his weapons and tests confirmed that neither fired the bullet that killed Sergeant.
Blanhum’s letter had stated that several beaches of the police Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were committed and that a senior officer instructed ranks to withdraw from the businessman’s home, where they had gone to request all the firearms. The senior officer was not named in the letter.
